Epstein Files: Ex-British Royal Andrew Mountbatten seen in laps of 5 women, ex-wife Sarah Ferguson spotted with Stephen Hawking

On a chilly Saturday morning (IST), the US Justice Department released a stockpile of the Epstein Files in a much-awaited disclosure. Besides American elite circles, the disclosures in these files are likely to rattle the insides of Buckingham Palace. 

The newly released Epstein Files feature former Prince Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor on the laps of five women with Epstein's aide Ghislaine Maxwell standing in the background. 

Besides, there are also photographs of Sarah Ferguson, the former Duchess of York, with English physicist and cosmologist Stephen Hawking in the stockpile. In one of these images, the former Duchess of York was spotted with a group of people. The group reportedly gave Hawking a Caribbean Tour aboard Maxwell's submersible that ferried them from St Thomas to Little Saint James. 

Moreover, there was a photograph of Ferguson with an unidentified woman in the Epstein Files. 

This, however, is not the first instance when the former British Royals have been associated with the late financier and convicted sex offender. In October, King Charles III stripped Andrew of the title of prince and forced him out of his royal mansion after renewed attention to the sexual assault allegations levelled by the late Virginia Roberts Giuffre. 

Giuffre alleged that she was forced to have sex with the then-prince on a private island owned by Epstein. She claimed that she was a teenager at the time of the incident. 

Andrew has categorically rejected the allegations and claimed that he never met Virginia before. Despite his repeated denials, he settled a civil lawsuit with her in 2022, and she received an undisclosed amount as a settlement. 

Early last month, a US congressional panel investigating Epstein summoned the former prince to appear by November 20. He, however, did not meet the November 20 deadline to respond to the panel. 

Following this, the committee said that it would probe "allegations of abuse by Mountbatten-Windsor", and seek infromation on Epstein's operations, networks and associates. 

At the time, congressman Robert Garcia said: "Rich and powerful men have evaded justice for far too long. Now, former prince Andrew has the opportunity to come clean and provide justice for the survivors."